


You’ll always have my back (right?)

by Anonymous



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Blood and Injury, Character death but only in visions... unless?, Dehumanization, Experimentation, Gun Violence, Guns, I think?, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Platonic Soulmates, Tommy can see the future pog, WINGS BABEYYY, jk, probably, tommy and tubbo also have wings, tubbo also has powers but we dont know it yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:00:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Tommy and Tubbo have a secret.They have wings.When people are sent after them and Tommy discovers he can see the future, what will they do when they flee to Wilbur’s house, only to find that Techno and Phil are there as well?-im really bad at summaries lmao
Relationships: Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, platonic - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 226
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello :) i wrote this in six hours fueled by chocolate so dont expect super amazing writing. also i wrote this in the notes app on my phone because of a dare and i think i gave myself carpel tunnel
> 
> enjoy
> 
> also my writing is kind of shit at the end uh ignore that

Tommy is laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, wings splayed out behind him.

Tubbo is laying similarly on Tommy’s bedroom floor, scrolling idly through Twitter. 

They’d met up for the first time a few months ago, and with it had come wings and small marks on their ankles - for Tommy, a bee, and for Tubbo, a music disc.

It had taken a few days, but they’d learned how to hide their wings via some sort of magic (they aren’t completely sure how it works). 

It had been quite a relief, because it meant that they could continue to stream with facecams on; no doubt hybrids, or whatever they are, would be targeted by some... bad people.

Tommy is brought out of his thoughts as a searing pain shoots through his head. Faintly, he is aware of himself doubling over and grasping at his head, but all he can focus on is the image forming in his mind. 

People. 

People with guns, loading up into vans that read _INTERNATIONAL HYBRID CONTAINMENT_ in bold words on the sides. 

Somehow, he knows they are coming for him and Tubbo. 

He cannot stop it. 

Tommy gasps in surprise as he feels hands on his shoulders, and the vision dissipates. 

Tubbo is standing in front of him, worry etched into his face, his wings spread wide behind him. 

There is an odd keening noise piercing the air, and Tommy realizes that it’s coming from him. 

Abruptly, the sound stops, and Tommy slowly relaxes, letting the tension bleed out of his body as his head throbs dully. 

“Are you okay?” Tubbo whispers, eyes searching his.

_No._

“I- I saw something.” Tommy admits. “A bunch of- of people with guns, getting into cars and coming for us.”

Out loud, he supposes, it sounds a lot dumber than he expected it to. 

“Y- What?” Tubbo asks with a frown, brow creasing in confusion. 

There is a tug in his gut and a small voice in his head. _Leave. Run._

“I don’t know, but.. we have to leave.” Tommy says, deciding to blindly trust his gut instinct.

“But _where?!_ Where do we go?” Tubbo cries, sensing Tommy’s growing panic. 

_Wilbur._

“Uh.. Wilbur’s?” 

“Why Wilbur?”

Tommy puts his head in his hands, grasping his hair in frustration. “I don’t know. All I know is what my gut is telling me, and I feel like my gut is to be trusted.”

His headache is growing worse, and he reaches for the Tylenol that sits on his nightstand. 

Tommy pops two of the pills into his mouth with a grimace, and Tubbo makes a proposition -

“How about we pack bags and put them on the roof of the house, and then if the people you saw _do_ come here, we can fly to Wilbur’s house, ok?”

_Tubbo doesn’t believe him._

Tommy’s heart sinks and urgency flows through his veins. 

“No, no, no, we have to go now, Tubbo!” He babbles hurriedly, his wings flaring open and closed and causing papers to fly off his desk. 

“Why? How do you know that?” 

Tommy’s mouth opens and closes a couple times. How _does_ he know that? 

“I don’t know. I.. My gut feeling is telling me that we have to go, _now,_ or else they’ll catch us.”

Tubbo still looks skeptical, but then, with almost movie-like timing, Tommy’s father opens the door.

“I called some people, and they’re going to get rid of your wings, ok? They- They’re going to make you normal again.”

Before either of them can say anything, his father is gone again. 

Tubbo turns to Tommy with wide eyes and a pale face.

“What do we need?”

-

Thirty minutes later, and they are packed. Tommy knows exactly what they each need and exactly how everything has to be packed for it all to fit. 

He doesn’t know how he knows. 

All of his alarm bells are ringing, and there are rocks in his gut as his mind yells at him to _go, go, go,_ but he forces himself to not start sprinting around his room, and instead makes sure he has everything they need in his bag. 

Food, check. 

Water bottles, check. 

Money, check. 

Toothbrushes and toothpaste, check. 

Phones and phone chargers, check. 

Four pairs of clothes, two for cold weather and two for hot weather, check. 

Blankets, check. 

Tylenol, check. 

Tommy lets out a breath, his wings shivering together nervously. “Alright. We’re ready to go.”

Tubbo nods, full of fear and pent-up nerves, and together they leap out of Tommy’s window and into the sky. 

-

The low light of the early evening helps to hide their escape; to any onlookers, they look like large birds flying high in the sky. 

Tommy grins as the wind runs through his feathers, his large wings propelling him forwards easily. 

Behind him, Tubbo huffs in frustration. “Slow down, would you? Not all of us have massive wings like yours.”

Tommy grins and glances over his shoulder at his friend. “Not my fault you have tiny little pigeon wings!”

“Hey, pigeons are cool!” Tubbo protests, flapping his wings harder in order to catch up to Tommy. 

“Whatever you say, pigeon boy.”

They banter for a while longer as the city below them turns into countryside, and early evening turns into nighttime. 

It doesn’t feel dark, in the sky, and Tommy can see the far-off lights of buildings ahead of them. 

When he mentions this to Tubbo, the other boy frowns. “I don’t see any lights.”

“Well, I guess your eyes are all messed up and shit.” Tommy fires back easily, and they fall into a comfortable silence as it truly registers what they’ve done. 

“I can’t believe we ran away.” Tubbo mutters, watching a bird fly past them. “Do you think they would really get rid of our wings?”

Tommy shrugs, or at least attempts to. “I don’t doubt it. They looked pretty sinister in my vision.”

“How would they do it? Would they just.. chop them off, or would they have some sort of thingy that would just make our wings go away?”

“How should I know?” Tommy asks, looking disgruntled. “They would probably chop them off so they could run experiments and shit.”

“I mean.. you’re the one who can see the future, apparently.” Tubbo points out, and Tommy frowns.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess so..”

-

When they reach Wilbur’s house, in the early morning, the first thing they do when they land on the roof to the left of the house is hide their wings. 

Wilbur wouldn’t turn them in, but people who see them might, and they can’t risk being seen and putting Wilbur in danger. 

They can’t knock on the front door, because once the missing persons alerts go out - and Tommy’s mind tells him that they will, if they aren’t already out - people might recall seeing them there. 

No, the boys decide, their best course of action is to break into the guest room through the window, and deal with Wilbur later. 

Tommy carefully opens the window and lets Tubbo climb through, following after him and closing the window behind them. 

What he expects to see when he turns around is an empty guest room. 

What he doesn’t expect to see, when he turns around, is the disheveled form of Technoblade, peering owlishly at them from where he sits in the guest bed. 

_WHY IS HE HERE_

“Tommy? Tubbo?” The man utters in surprise, and Tommy opens his mouth to speak, but when he makes eye contact with Techno pain shoots through his skull. 

_No, not now,_ he thinks, but the vision hits him anyways. 

Techno, bullet wounds in his chest, splayed out on a cold tile floor as he slowly bleeds to death, eyes wide and unseeing. 

He distantly feels himself being shaken, hears Tubbo calling his name, sees Techno staring at him in alarm as the world comes back into focus. 

“What did you see?” Tubbo whispers from where he is crouched on the floor beside him, and Tommy realizes that he’s curled in a ball on the floor. 

“Techno..” Tommy says, in a scarcely-hearable voice. “Dying.”

With shaking hands, Tommy grabs the Tylenol from his backpack, swallowing two of the little pills. 

When his arm brushes against Tubbo’s, he suddenly feels bone-tired, system flooded with weariness. He glances over at Tubbo in surprise, just now noticing how tired his friend looks. 

_Am I feeling Tubbo’s tiredness?_

“Do you know what causes that future?” Tubbo asks him quietly, and Tommy shakes his head silently. 

“Is.. is it a for sure future?” Tubbo asks, even quieter, and Tommy concentrates for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut. 

It makes his headache worse, trying to track the futures, but he persists. 

After a long moment, he opens his eyes. 

“No, but it’s very likely.” Tommy declares, and Tubbo gives a small sigh of relief. 

They both flinch in surprise as the door flies open, emitting Wilbur with - _Phil?_ close behind him, drawn by Tommy’s cries of pain from when he had the vision. 

The boy tenses when he makes eye contact with Wilbur, but no vision hits him this time, and he relaxes. 

“Tommy?” Wilbur says in surprise, and his gaze shifts to Tubbo. _”Tubbo?”_

“Hi, Wilbur..” Tommy begins uncomfortably, feeling his wings push against the edges of his mind, wanting so _badly_ to spread his wings and hide Tubbo from Wilbur’s glare. 

“Why are you here?” The man demands, and Tommy winces.

“We, uh..” He turns to his mind for guidance, but the little voice is silent. “We just need a place to stay for a few nights..?” His gaze flicks to Phil and Techno. “Or, uh, we could leave now..” 

Tubbo gives him a withering glance that says, _why did you have us come here if you didn’t have a plan of what to say to Wilbur?_

Tommy glares back at Tubbo, trying to convey _well, I didn’t think that far ahead!_

Phil’s voice draws them from their silent argument. “Tommy, was that scream you?”

Tommy’s brows raise in surprise as he glances at Tubbo questioningly. _Did I scream?_

Tubbo nods, and Tommy frowns, unsure of how to reply. 

Thankfully, he is saved from having to reply by another vision. 

He feels a scream ripped from his throat and is vaguely aware of the others crying out in surprise and panic. 

This time, the vision is of Phil and Wilbur, throats slit in their sleep, bleeding out on the same cold tile. 

He chokes on his sobs as he tries to reach out to them, but he is frozen, frozen in place as he watches two fourths of his pseudo-family die, and there is nothing he can do. 

“Tommy, hey, can you focus on my voice?” 

Tubbo’s voice echoes in his mind. 

“It’s just a vision, ok? Whatever you’re seeing isn’t real. It’s not happening.”

It’s not real. Phil and Wilbur are ok, and alive, and safe. 

“We’re going to make sure that it doesn’t come true, ok? We’ll keep everyone safe.”

Slowly, the vision dissipates, and in its place he sees Tubbo’s worried face, and Tommy vaguely realizes that he’s been sobbing, his fingers tangled in his hair. 

“Okay, what the _fuck_ was that?” Phil demands, and Tommy winces as the harsh voice cuts into his throbbing headache. 

He blindly reaches for the Tylenol, and Tubbo smacks his hand. “No way, Tommy, you’ve just taken Tylenol.” His friend says scoldingly. 

He scowls at Tubbo. “You’re not the one having visions and shit all the time.”

“That doesn’t mean you can take more pills than you’re supposed to!”

“Hang on, what’s all this about visions and futures?” Techno interrupts, and Tommy and Tubbo both freeze. 

“Is it safe to tell them?” Tubbo asks quietly, and Tommy shrugs helplessly. “Headache’s too bad. I can’t look.”

“Uhh.. Tommy can see the future.” Tubbo blurts. 

The confusion on the other’s faces turn into concern. Tommy snorts. “They think we’re crazy.”

“No, no, we just...” Phil trails off, because he kind of _does_ think they’re crazy, so he instead changes the subject. “How did you two get here?”

Tommy and Tubbo share another glance, and come to a silent agreement. 

“We’ll, uh.. tell you later.” Tommy says uncomfortably, and feels Tubbo exhaustedly lean on his shoulder. “Tubbo needs to sleep.” He adds. 

Wilbur looks like he wants to say something else, then comes to a decision. “..Yeah, he can take a rest on my sofa?”

Tommy nods and gently shakes Tubbo, rousing the older boy and carefully pulling him up to a standing position. 

He guides his friend into Wilbur’s living room, ignoring the feeling of his head practically being split in two, and the feeling of his friend’s gazes burning into his back. 

Tubbo lays down on the sofa, and Tommy carefully throws the warm fleece blanket that he’d packed over his friend, who is practically already asleep. 

Tubbo mutters a sleepy thanks, and then Tommy feels a hand on his shoulder, and Wilbur’s quiet voice. “We need to talk.”

-

Five minutes later, and Tommy is sitting at Wilbur’s kitchen table with a cup of warm tea. 

Techno, Phil, and Wilbur sit across from him, and Tommy stirs nervously in the silence. 

“So, first, what’s this about seeing the future?” Techno finally says. 

“I mean.. there’s not much more to say about it.” Tommy mutters. “I have visions of possible futures that are likely to happen, but can be avoided. Each vision comes with a massive headache, though.”

The three exchange a glance. “Ookay. Uh, what kind of things do you see?” Phil prompts. 

Tommy flinches. “..Bad futures.”

“Such as?” Wilbur asks softly.

Images of his friends’ dead bodies flash through his mind. “I don’t want to talk about them.”

Phil leans forwards, hands folded over his lap. “Tommy, we need to know what you see.”

“I-“ Tommy’s voice catches in his throat. “..All I know is that they’re after me and Tubbo, and- and there’s...” 

Tommy can’t bring himself to continue, can’t bring himself to tell his friends that they could die in the near future. 

Instead, he mumbles, “A lot of bad futures.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Techno rumbles with an eyebrow raised.

Tommy waves his hands in the air vaguely. “Some government or military people or something who are after us for being..” The words die on his tongue again as he realizes that he’d almost revealed their secret.

“For being...?” Phil prompts. 

“I can’t say.” Tommy mumbles, shifting in his seat so he can run his fingers over his soulmate mark (at least, that’s what he assumes it to be).

Phil frowns thoughtfully and leans back. “You know you can tell us anything, right?” Wilbur says quietly, comfortingly. 

“I know. I don’t want to put you guys in danger.” Tommy replies quietly. 

“Again, how did you get here?” Phil asks, deciding to steer the conversation in a different direction. 

“M’ still can’t tell you.” Tommy mutters.

He flinches as panic shoots through him, but it’s not his, and immediately he stands up and darts out of the room, ignoring the surprised yelps of his friends. 

As he reaches Tubbo, he can see his friend is having a nightmare, and he scrunches himself down next to his friend and murmurs to him quietly, running his hands through the older’s hair. 

Tubbo’s panic fades, and he relaxes. Tommy breathes a quiet sigh of relief and he looks up to see the others standing in the doorway of the room. 

“How did you know he was having a nightmare?” Phil asks. 

“We can feel each other’s emotions sometimes.” Tommy blurts, and then cringes. “Anyways, I, uh, I’m really tired, so I’m gonna go to sleep...”

Phil opens his mouth to say, no, you need to elaborate more, and then sighs. “Alright, Tommy. See you in the morning.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyyy im back sorry for the wait, notes app decided to keep deleting half of the chapter

Tommy is plagued by nightmares that night. 

Even with the comfort of Tubbo sleeping near him, his sleep is restless and afraid and when he wakes up in the morning the first thing Tommy does is make sure that everyone is alive. 

He is the first person awake, so he busies himself by raiding Wilbur’s pantry and making himself and Tubbo some cereal. 

Tommy sets the two bowls on the counter and goes to wake up Tubbo, only to find the other boy already awake. 

“What's the plan?” Tubbo whispers when he sees Tommy. “How long are we going to stay here?”

“I.. don’t know.” Tommy mumbles. “I haven’t had any visions about it, and I don’t feel like trying to look.”

He stands up and beckons to Tubbo. “I made us some cereal.”

Thirty minutes later, Wilbur stumbles blearily into the kitchen, looking surprised to see Tommy and Tubbo already awake. 

“Er... Good morning.” Wilbur says as he begins to cook something - pasta? - for breakfast. 

Neither of them respond; this is the longest Tommy’s ever had his wings hidden, and all he can think about is how his wings push against the veil of magic, wanting so desperately to be set free. 

As the rest of the house begins to wake up, it gets harder to hide his wings, and he can tell Tubbo is fighting it too. 

He makes it through breakfast, though, and is about to hastily excuse himself to the bathroom when Techno makes a quiet, shocked noise.

At the same time, Tommy gets a sudden surge of messages from his friends, and he knows with a sinking feeling that the missing persons alert is out. 

He glances over at Tubbo, and can tell his friend is getting the same barrage. 

Wilbur’s brows furrow as he stares down at his phone. “You didn’t tell anyone you were coming here?!”

“Erm.. no.” Tommy mutters. 

“Tommy, we have to tell your guys’ parents that you two are here!” Phil cries, aghast. 

Immediately, Tommy lunges up and out of his chair, eyes wide. “No! No one can know we’re here!”

“Tommy, we could get arrested for kidnapping!” Wilbur argues. 

“Then we’ll leave.” Tubbo says suddenly, moving to stand beside Tommy. Then, he glances at Tommy with a frown. “Is that a good idea?”

Tommy scrunches his eyes closed and tries to trace the future where they ran away from Wilbur’s house. This time, instead of the single thread that usually glowed in his mind, a web of futures explode in his mind’s eye. 

It’s beautiful, really, thousands of glowing silver strands all branching off and connecting and intersecting. 

As though in a trance, he zeros in on the path where they run away. For the most part, he can see, its safe, but its exhausting, and they’re constantly on the run, never able to relax. 

He glances over at the thread where they don’t run, and finds that he can’t trace it, and that future is shrouded in shadow. There’s a glow at the end of the thread, outshining the rest of the futures, and Tommy knows immediately that he wants that future. 

When he tries to push, he is hit with a blinding pain in his head, and with a cry of shock he opens his eyes to see Tubbo watching him with a concerned gaze. 

His head pounds in the beginnings of a headache, but he ignores it. “It’s a relatively safe future, but it’s exhausting, and one of the worse happy endings.” Tommy mutters. “The path where we stay here is dangerous, very dangerous, especially for them-“ He gestures at Techno, Phil, and Wilbur “-But it has the best ending.”

“So we’re staying?” Tubbo asks quietly, and Tommy nods. “Yeah.”

Techno had been watching the interaction with narrowed eyes. “We still have to tell your parents.”

Tommy yelps as pain slices through his head, and suddenly he can see the next major decision clearly. 

Tell Tommy and Tubbo’s parents, or not. 

Telling them leads to the people finding them, in almost every future. 

When they take Tommy and Tubbo away, the others try to fight for them in every future. 

Telling their parents ends in three deaths, in every future. 

_“No.”_ Tommy whispers, staring at nothing and everything at the same time. “No, no, no, there has to be a different path! It- That- They _can’t_ die.”

He flinches when Tubbo grasps his hand, and the futures dissipate. “We lose, Tubbo.” Tommy says, voice barely above a whisper. “If they call our parents, it’s game over.” Tears start to roll down Tommy’s cheeks. He can barely feel them, clutching his friend’s hands and holding on for dear life. “They all die, Tubbo.”

“How do we stop it?” Tubbo says pleadingly, and Tommy shakes his head. 

“Once they call our parents, we can’t stop it.”

Tubbo releases Tommy’s hands and runs his hands through his hair nervously, beginning to pace back and forth. At this point, both of them have practically forgotten about the other three, who are watching with a mixture of confusion, worry, and concern on their faces. 

“What happens to us, in that future?” Tubbo whimpers. 

“They take us away.” Tommy whispers. “We die in their facility.”

Tommy is shaking at this point, and Tubbo is too, and it’s all getting to be too much and Tommy sits down. 

He really misses his wings right now. 

He squeezes his eyes shut, and desperately wishes that it was yesterday and they were still at Tommy’s house. 

Arms wrap around him, warm and comforting, and Tommy opens his eyes to see Wilbur crouched on the ground beside him, holding Tommy tightly, Techno standing worriedly behind him, unsure how to help. 

“Whatever you saw, it’s going to be okay, alright?”

“B-but you all die, Wil.” Tommy whimpers, clutching Wilbur’s shirt, hearing the man’s sharp inhale. “It’s game over.”

He can’t stop replaying the image in his head, over and over, his friend’s bodies littering the ground and he can hear the sound of Tubbo screaming and sobbing and he can hear his _own_ voice, screaming profanities and yelling and crying as he’s pulled away, and it’s so awful and terrible and-

His breaths quicken and he practically curls into Wilbur, reminding himself that his friends are alive, and he can stop that from happening, can get them all to the happy future. 

“I’m scared, Wilby.” Tommy admits, voice thick. “I have to keep you all safe, but the future is so dangerous, and there’s so many ways all of you could die in the next week and I- I don’t-“

There’s a hand on his shoulder, and Techno is there, his voice rumbling comfortingly. “Don’t think about the future too hard, okay? I trust that you can keep us all safe, but we need to know the truth, the _whole_ truth, for you to be able to do that.”

Out of the corner of his eye he can see Phil comforting Tubbo, and knowing his soulmate is safe makes him feel a little bit better. 

“Tubbo.” He whispers, reaching out in the direction of his closest friend. 

“You want Tubbo?” Wilbur asks quietly, and Tommy nods, his hands shaking slightly. His chest is too constricting and he feels like he can’t get enough air and-

“A soulmate’s touch is always the most comforting.” Tommy says, and then frowns, because he’s not sure how he knows that. 

As though he knew that Tommy needed him - and perhaps he did, through their soulmate bond - Tubbo darts over, and Tommy curls into Tubbo’s hug, and he can finally breathe easier. 

“We need to tell them everything.” Tommy whispers, and Tubbo nods. “..Alright.”

They both stand, Tommy leaning on Tubbo a little, and the first thing Tommy does is give in to the urge to release his wings. It’s been too long, and they’re going to tell them everything anyways, so there’s no harm.

His brown and white wings burst from his back, scattering a few feathers over the floor, and Tommy sighs in relief.

“What the _fuck?_ ” Wilbur cries in surprise, while Phil and Techno look shocked. 

A whoosh of air from Tommy’s left tells him that Tubbo’s wings are out, and he grins. 

“You’ll want to sit down for this.”

-

The five of them are seated in Wilbur’s living room. Tommy and Tubbo are perched on the back of the couch, and the other three are sitting in chairs hastily pulled up by the couch. 

“So,” Tommy starts, “We’re hybrids.”

“We got our wings the day after we met up for the first time.” Tubbo chimes in. 

“Along with our soulmate marks.” Tommy finishes. 

“It took us a few days to figure out how to hide our wings; we don’t really understand how it works.” Tubbo continues. “But it meant we could get back to streaming, and we were fine for a few months.”

“Until yesterday.” Tommy says. “Tubbo was staying at my place for a few days, and I had my first vision, of a bunch of military-looking dudes packing up into vans and coming for us. My dad had called them, so we packed bags and flew here.”

“And- what of these futures you talked about?” Phil asks gently. 

Tommy cringes, and Tubbo wraps a wing around him comfortingly. “I didn’t have any on the way here, but when we got here and I saw Techno, I saw a snippet of one of the.. bad futures. It- it was Techno, and someone had shot him - twice - and he was bleeding out on this.. cold tile floor. I’m not sure how I knew it was cold, I just did.”

Techno looked pale, and also maybe a little bit sick, and Tommy quickly barrels on. 

“And then the second vision I had was of Wilbur and Phil-“ He can see them tense; he doesn’t blame them, “-and it was the same cold tile, and your throats were slit in your sleep.”

His wings shiver together anxiously as he continues. “And- uh, today’s vision was by far the most vivid. It was the future where you’d called our parents, and the people came to take us away. In every future, you guys fought for us, and in every future, all three of you died. In- in the vision, I could hear Tubbo crying and- and screaming as they took him away, and I could hear myself screaming, too, because you guys were dying and they were taking us away from you.” Tommy finishes, and he leans into Tubbo’s side, feeling sick just thinking about what he saw. 

The other three look horrified. “No wonder you were so freaked out.” Phil says with wide eyes. 

Tommy closes his eyes in response, trying not to think about his visions too hard. 

Tommy opens his eyes when he hears shuffling, and he realizes that it’s Wilbur shakily standing up and shuffling over to the sink to get water. 

He flicks his wings open and closed a few times, full of anxiety and pent-up energy. 

“Are we in any danger right now?” Tubbo asks quietly, and Tommy closes his eyes for a moment, tracing the silvery futures that appear in front of him. 

“They’re going to guess we’ve gone to the house of one of our friends, but they won’t check here for a few days.” Tommy says, then frowns as a thin thread off to the side catches his eye. “No- wait, there’s a minor future where they come here tomorrow, but today we’re safe.”

“So, how does it work?” Techno asks, brows furrowed in confusion. “What does it look like?”

Tommy frowns. “Well.. its kind of like tree branches, yeah? The bigger decisions and more likely futures are larger branches, and each one has lots of little tiny branches sprouting off of it. They’re kind of silvery and glow-y, and a lot of the smaller futures connect with other futures, because some paths lead to the same ending.”

“What does the future look like? How do you see it?” Techno pushes further, looking intrigued. 

Tommy tilts his head thoughtfully, trying to think of a way to describe it. “When I’m looking? They’re like watery reflections in the branches, but I can still see them clearly, for the most part. When I have visions, I get a really sudden headache, worse if the vision is very major, and it’s a clear image, sometimes moving.”

He remembers the shrouded future from earlier. “I can’t see all of them; for example, sometimes I can’t see super far into the future, or it’s covered in shadows.”

Techno and Phil both lean forward, as though waiting for Tommy to elaborate, so he does. 

“Like- the other branch, the one we’re headed down right now. I can only see a little bit into the future, like the next few days, but the rest is cast in shadow and it hurts when I try to push. I think it means it’s a really difficult future, or path, but it has the best ending at the end. It's like a light, and it outshines all the other futures.”

“...Huh.” Techno mutters, eyes half-closed as though trying to imagine what it looks like. 

Randomly, Tommy pokes Tubbo in the side and whispers, “pigeon boy,” with a small giggle. 

“Hey!” Tubbo slaps Tommy’s hand away, frowning. “There’s _nothing_ wrong with being a pigeon!”

“Yeah, but I’m a hawk ‘n shit. Could beat the crap outta you.” Tommy says with a smirk, spreading his wings to accentuate his words. 

Tubbo grins, feeling a friendly scuffle incoming. “You wanna make good on that statement?”

Tommy grins as well. “Yeah, bitch!” He crows and shoves Tubbo off the back of the sofa and onto the cushions. 

Tubbo lands with an ‘umph’ and immediately grabs Tommy’s ankle and yanks it, sending Tommy off-balance and causing the younger boy to flare his wings in order not to fall. 

Tubbo frowns and grasps at Tommy’s other foot, this time succeeding in dragging Tommy onto the couch. 

Immediately they start to wrestle, quickly taking to the air in the cramped space of Wilbur’s house. 

“Hey hey hey!” Wilbur yells quickly, looking panicked. “You’re going to break something!”

“I never break things, bitch.” Tommy replies, and his wing catches on a vase sitting on a windowsill and knocks it to the floor. Wilbur gives a cry of alarm, though thankfully it doesn’t break, and Tommy laughs. 

The future might be dark, but for today, he can relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly dont remember half of what i wrote so like. please tell me if you see typos


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for slight mentions of needles & drugging. they’re not described in detail, but i figured i should say it anyways! enjoy!

He should have known that nothing lasts forever. 

It’s late at night the next day when the minor future he’d seen before explodes into his brain, and he estimates that they have about thirty minutes before the people arrive. 

He bursts into action, rousing everyone in the house and frantically packing bags for them all. 

He’s shoving Wilbur, Techno, and Phil out of the back door when he hears something slam into the front door. 

“Go!” Tommy cries, shoving his friends outside as the front door comes crashing down and the people spill into the house. 

Tubbo, who is already outside, yelps in fear and wavers in the air, as though forcing himself not to fly away. 

“Run. There’s a hole in the fence in the right corner where you can get out.” Tommy shouts, shoving at his friends, who are frozen in place. 

They jolt into action and start running, and as Tommy moves to follow them he feels hands around his ankle. 

He screeches, flipping around in the air and beating his wings around the head of the man who’d grabbed him. 

Tommy feels hands on his wings, pulling him down, and he kicks out blindly with his free leg as he’s forced to the ground. 

His foot connects with someone, and he registers a small pain in his arm, the glint of metal, but he’s too focused on trying to escape to think about what that means. 

His vision is filled with people in military uniforms, pinning him down, and he can hear Tubbo crying somewhere nearby. 

He beats his wings wildly, trying once more to escape, but his limbs are growing heavier and it’s getting harder to keep his eyes open. 

Darkness creeps at the edges of his vision and Tommy feels oh so very tired. 

His eyes grow heavier, and his mind grows fuzzy as he falls unconscious. 

-

Tommy groans as he opens his eyes. 

Light floods into his face, and Tommy winces, raising a hand to shield his face. 

When his eyes adjust, he stands and looks around at his new surroundings. 

He doesn’t recognize this room; how did he get here?

Memories of earlier that day rush back to him, and Tommy realizes that he must have been drugged. 

With a grunt, he glances around the room, hoping to see something that will help him escape. 

It’s pretty plain; white walls, white floor. There’s a bed with a single blanket in one corner, and a door in the other that turns out to open into a bathroom. There’s another door, heavy and metal, that Tommy assumes leads out into the rest of the facility. 

He tries to ruffle his wings, and thats when he realizes that he _can’t_. 

Tommy feels sick when he realizes that there’s clamps on his wings, stopping them from being outstretched all the way. 

He shudders, hating the feeling of being grounded. 

He hopes Tubbo and the others are okay. 

When he tries to look into the future, he cries out in shock, because the silvery branches are gone, replaced by nothingness. 

For a moment, Tommy thinks his powers are gone, and then he realizes that the facility must have some sort of magic blocker. 

The door opens, and Tommy's head snaps around. 

A man enters, holding a gun. “Follow me and don’t act up, or I’ll shoot you in the head.” He says, voice low and growly. 

Tommy clenches his fists a couple times, debating whether or not to follow. He misses his foresight. 

His problem is solved when the man presses the gun to his temple, and so Tommy reluctantly follows the man into a large room with a door on each wall. 

It feels like he’s suddenly walked into a forest. 

The room is _massive_ and very very tall, with ledges of various sizes scattered around the wall, painted to look like rocks.

The floor is dirt, though Tommy can’t tell how deep it goes. 

There’s fake trees scattered around the room, with large branches sprouting from the trunks. 

Tommy’s lip curls as he sees what looks like a river tailing through the room, obviously man-made. Did they expect him to drink from that water like some sort of animal? Fish splash around in the river, ranging from small to massive, and Tommy blinks in confusion. 

What’s the purpose of this room?

He grows even more confused as the man unclamps his wings and vanishes out the door they came in from. 

Quickly, he flies up to one of the ledges, just in case. 

For the rest of the day, he is alone in the room. When the lights turn off, Tommy goes to sleep. When the lights flick on, Tommy wakes up. 

He’s hungry, incredibly hungry, but no one ever comes with food. 

He stares down at the river, down at the _fish_ , the silvery, wriggling fish. 

Do they expect him to eat the fish?

Tommy scoffs, tearing his gaze away from the fish, despite the fact that they look _incredibly appetizing._

As if he’s going to eat raw fish. 

But as the hours drag on, and still no one arrives with food, Tommy gives in.

He glides down to the river and crouches on the bank, trying to figure out how to catch them. 

He tries to grab them, but the fish always seem to slip from his grasp. 

Then, he gets an idea, and when one of the smaller fish flits past him, he hooks his hand forward and essentially splashes the fish out of the water and onto the ground beside him. 

Well, he’s got the fish. How does he eat it?

Tommy stares down at the fish, frowning. Can he eat it raw? Is that one of his hybrid abilities? Almost reflexively, he glances into the future to see what effect eating the fish will have, before remembering that his powers are blocked. 

He pokes at the fish, which is flopping around piteously, and impulsively decides to just eat it raw and deal with possible consequences later. 

After all, his stomach is curling in pain, and the fish is food. 

He picks up the little fish by the tail and closes his eyes for a moment, steeling himself before plopping the fish into his mouth and swallowing it whole. 

It’s slimy, and he gags a little bit, but he decides that its not that bad overall. 

He catches another fish, larger this time, and then realizes that this one is too big to swallow without chewing. 

As he contemplates how to eat it, because he can’t exactly bite into a fish, his mouth feels tingly. 

Tommy’s hands fly up to his mouth, and his wings flutter in surprise as he feels it _changing_. 

Within moments, his mouth has shifted into a beak-like shape, hooked like a hawk’s. He wonders if this is another part of being a bird hybrid; if so, why is it only showing now?

Tentatively, he hooks his “beak” into the side of the fish and pulls at the flesh. It gives easily, and Tommy grins as his wickedly sharp beak rips through the fish like it’s butter. 

He carefully picks out the scraps of meat that he wants, avoiding the bones and the eyes (He can never stand eating fish eyes. They’re just so rubbery and the way they pop always make him cringe).

After he finishes the fish, he leaves the scraps scattered across the ground and returns to his ledge, where he begins to ponder _why_ he’s in here. 

Maybe it’s a test on his animalistic traits or instincts? That could be it. It would explain why they’d stuck him in here.

But what’s their end goal? Perhaps they have none, Tommy muses. 

He jolts out of his thoughts as one of the other doors bangs open, and a person is thrown into the room. 

The soldier outside shouts something angrily before slamming the door closed. 

Tommy cautiously glides over onto one of the branches of the tree closest to the person, close but not too close to them. Just in case. 

They look like a fox hybrid. Tommy frowns, because he didn’t know there were other hybrids. The man has fox ears and a bushy tail, and his hands are closer to claws. 

He looks familiar somehow, but Tommy can’t see the man’s face clearly. 

He squawks in surprise as the man groans, clasping a hand to his head. When the fox hybrid pushes himself up onto his knees, Tommy realizes with a jolt who the person is.

 _“Fundy?”_ He says incredulously, flaring his wings behind him as he carefully shuffles closer to the end of the branch. 

Fundy looks up in surprise, eyes widening. “Tommy?”

Tommy gives a shocked laugh as he slips off the branch and glides to the ground. “They caught you too, eh?”

Fundy grunts, eyes sliding to the side. “..Yeah. They showed up at my house yesterday. No idea how they knew I was a fox.”

“I mean, I didn’t know you’re a fox.” Tommy says, though he’s not sure why. “And I can see the future an’ shit.” He adds. 

“You can _what?_ ” Fundy asks, gaze snapping to Tommy’s face. 

“I can see the future. Not in here, though, because they have some sort of blocker on it.” Tommy elaborates, not elaborating at all.

“Mm. I can turn into a fox.” Fundy says, then scrunching his face in confusion. “I guess I can’t in here, either.”

Fundy glances around the room. “Um. What _is_ here, anyways?”

Tommy shrugs as he stands up. “No idea. They put me in here yesterday. I think it’s to test our animalistic instincts, or what our animal genes allow is to do or something.” 

He points at the river. “They didn’t bring me any food, so I had to fish. Turns out I can eat raw meat.”

Fundy’s lip curls. “Ew, man. I hate fish.”

“They’ll probably put in mice or something for you to hunt.” Tommy points out, flying up onto a low branch on the tree. “Foxes don’t really eat fish.”

Fundy frowns. “I don’t want to eat mice, either.”

Tommy sighs, ruffling his wings. “Yeah, it kind of sucks. Hopefully they’ll take us out of here eventually.”

“Yeah.” Fundy mutters, and the lights flick off. 

Tommy scowls. “Time to sleep, I guess.” He says as he squints in the darkness, shuffling to the right so he can lean against the trunk of the tree. 

Tommy wraps his wings around himself and mutters a quiet, “Night, bitch.”

Fundy chuckles a little. “Goodnight, Tommy.”

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all, if he gets to have a friend by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its a bit short :/ didnt really know where go to with it and i wanted to get it out to you guys tonight! the plot thickens :) we’re just getting into it

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this bc brainrot smh


End file.
